Bernard was right. The germ is nothing, the terrain is everything.
The role of the infinitely small in nature is infinitely great.
Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment.
Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.
As in the experimental sciences, truth cannot be distinguished from error as long as firm principles have not been established through the rigorous observation of facts.
The artificial products do not have any molecular dissymmetry; and I could not indicate the existence of a more profound separation between the products born under the influence of life and all the others.
I have the faith of a Breton peasant and by the time I die I hope to have the faith of a Breton peasant’s wife.
Intuition is given only to him who has undergone long preparation to receive it.
Do not promote what you can’t explain, simplify, and prove early.
Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy.
Work usually follows will.
Whether our efforts are, or not, favored by life, let us be able to say, when we come near to the great goal, I have done what I could.
I give them experiments and they respond with speeches.
After death, life reappears in a different form and with different laws. It is inscribed in the laws of the permanence of life on the surface of the earth and everything that has been a plant and an animal will be destroyed and transformed into a gaseous, volatile and mineral substance.
There is no such thing as a special category of science called applied science; there is science and its applications, which are related to one another as the fruit is related to the tree that has borne it.
The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.
A bit of science distances one from God, but much science nears one to Him.
I am utterly convinced that Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will eventually unite not to destroy but to edify, and that the future will belong to those who have done the most for the sake of suffering humanity.
The Ancients understood the omnipotence of the underside of things.
Happy is he who bears a god within, and who obeys it. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration from which they spring.
Our only consolation, as we feel our strength failing us, is to feel that we may help those who come after us to do more and to do better than ourselves.